Thread by @RogerPielkeJr

🧵Allow me to debunk this proposal in the @WSJ to hamstring Pres Biden re-entry into Paris Climate Agreement

The proposal➡️ To prevent the Paris Climate Accord from taking on undue power, President Trump should let the Senate reject it, writes wsj.com/articles/how-t… via @WSJ

Pres Trump cannot submit Paris Agreement to the Senate for ratification because it is not a treaty, but instead an "executive agreement made pursuant to a treaty"

Treaty= Framework Convention on Climate Change (ratified Oct 1992 by U.S. Senate at request of Pres GHW Bush)

Upon entering the Paris Agreement in 2015, Pres Obama defined it as an "executive agreement"

https://twitter.com/Deese44/status/772078584806637568?s=20

And the Trump Administration itself based its withdrawal from the Paris Agreement on the basis that it was an "executive agreement" and not a treaty
fas.org/sgp/crs/row/R4…

Further, the U.S. as of November 4th is no longer a party to the Paris Agreement.

Pres Trump could ask the current Senate for a vote (presumably no by party line) on whether the US should rejoin the Agreement

But this would be symbolic only & non-binding on Pres Biden

Bottom line

There is nothing that Pres Trump can do to prevent Pres Biden from re-entering the Paris Agreement on 21 Jan 2021 by "executive agreement"

Deeper legal dive: fas.org/sgp/crs/row/R4…

The whole process, starting with Obama, reveals the fickleness of executive action as climate policy

Congress should pass relevant legislation (that's the big challenge!)

Pres Biden re-entry into Paris could be the start of something important

On its own it won't do much

/END